I'm sure somebody wrote a Pretend Movie Adaptation of a Pac-man game in a talkback once...I'm pretty sure it was Zombie Solutions too. Maybe he can dig it out of the vaults and post it here to give your thread a bit more meat on its bones.

It looks like they're just in the script-writing stage, but that news is crazy. Why would they want to adapt it, how would they even think about going about it? Will it be like some Russian hit-men are after a studly rotund guy with a bad sun-tan (that's made him turn yellow)? Wasn't the cartoon series bad enough, now they have to make this...

Say you're an up and coming screenwriter, on the make in Hollywood (which you may or may not actually be). Someway, somehow, Namco has chosen to entrust you with their sacred Pac-Man property. They've given you free reign with the story, the actors, and the budget, as long as the project could still conceivably be called "Pac-Man" and somewhat resembles the game. The project baffles you, but it's the only work you can get. What would you do? What. Would. You. Do.

I thought Pac-Man VS on the Gamecube was a really cool update of the game.

Dunno if anybody here played it, but you needed to hook up a GBA to your Gamecube. The GBA player, who controls Pac-Man, could see the whole board, while the other players (3 for maximum enjoyment) play the ghosts, and can only see their immediate surroundings. Good little game, I picked it up for about $15, unboxed.

I hope they use this old chestnut for a story kickoff -
Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music. - Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989
Set it in a nightclub with a freaked out clubber, and have Ghosts\bouncers coming after him. The changing beats and tunes make the dance floor shift, effectively like a maze (come on, who hasnt got lost in a big club).
I dont have any idea of a plot or purpose, but it could be a fear and loathing in las vegas kinda trip.
Absolute nonsense I know, but we are talking about a pac man movie.

Hermanator X wrote:I hope they use this old chestnut for a story kickoff -Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music. - Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989

All I know about this is that it should be completely chase oriented... it should be like Tron mixed with the batmobile chase scene in Batman Begins. Have some teenagers, or a bunch of computer programmers, or something, be sucked into a computer program, or a military training program, or something, run amok. Throw them into a big yellow contraption that's partly a cool high tech vehicle and partly a giant CGI Pac-Man. Have them run around in a big fucking maze, trying to get out of the program, or whatever... throw in lots of incredibly ghoulish, over-the-top CGI ghosts. Or if you don't like the CGI, make 'em clamation or puppets or something. Get Guillermero Del Toro to direct. Make the whole fucking thing look like Tron. Give it a hip rave, trip-hop soundtrack. And then... and then...

...ummm. They chase each other for, like, an hour and a half. Around the maze and, ummm... okay. Maybe there're a few rough patches here, script wise. But what the heck. That didn't stop Gus Van Sant, did it?

I think the PAC MAN film should be used as an allegory for the inevitable collapse of capitalism.

PAC MAN would play the greedy capitalist; raiding the maze of the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat -- stealing their dots, "power pellets", and food -- in order to boost his own status.

The ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, enraged, will rise from their graves to kill PAC MAN.

Now, as with Capitalism, PAC MAN is a powerful beast which can outrun the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, seemingly endlessly stealing all of their resources and devouring them over and over again with his "patterns."

HOWEVER, as we all know, eventually, PAC MAN is going to die; and there are no continues.

This GAME OVER for PAC MAN signifies the inevtiable end of Laize-Faire / Imperialist Capitalism, and the rise of the workers who overthrow their greedy capitalist overlords and establish a workers paradise...

ZombieZoneSolutions wrote:I think the PAC MAN film should be used as an allegory for the inevitable collapse of capitalism.

PAC MAN would play the greedy capitalist; raiding the maze of the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat -- stealing their dots, "power pellets", and food -- in order to boost his own status.

The ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, enraged, will rise from their graves to kill PAC MAN.

Now, as with Capitalism, PAC MAN is a powerful beast which can outrun the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, seemingly endlessly stealing all of their resources and devouring them over and over again with his "patterns."

HOWEVER, as we all know, eventually, PAC MAN is going to die; and there are no continues.

This GAME OVER for PAC MAN signifies the inevtiable end of Laize-Faire / Imperialist Capitalism, and the rise of the workers who overthrow their greedy capitalist overlords and establish a workers paradise...

Studio Exec wrote:Ok, as long as it is PG-13 for the kids demographic and it has lots of explosions and boobies

ZombieZoneSolutions wrote:I think the PAC MAN film should be used as an allegory for the inevitable collapse of capitalism.

PAC MAN would play the greedy capitalist; raiding the maze of the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat -- stealing their dots, "power pellets", and food -- in order to boost his own status.

The ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, enraged, will rise from their graves to kill PAC MAN.

Now, as with Capitalism, PAC MAN is a powerful beast which can outrun the ghosts of the lumpen proletariat, seemingly endlessly stealing all of their resources and devouring them over and over again with his "patterns."

HOWEVER, as we all know, eventually, PAC MAN is going to die; and there are no continues.

This GAME OVER for PAC MAN signifies the inevtiable end of Laize-Faire / Imperialist Capitalism, and the rise of the workers who overthrow their greedy capitalist overlords and establish a workers paradise...

Studio Exec wrote:Ok, as long as it is PG-13 for the kids demographic and it has lots of explosions and boobies

EXACTLY! What would a proto-socialist allegory about a video game be without copius boobage and splosions.

Don't forget, it also requires a "slammin'" soundtrack packed to the gills with Safe, Status Quoish, Corporate Sponsored Rebellion (TM).

A live action conversion - never going to work. But an animated feature - sure, why not?

This one needs the full 3-D, Pixar or Dreamworks style treatment. But why not? Remold any other tale, change a few details and voila! You have your protagonist, the heroine, the antagonists...you need a King Ghost who stands out from the Pac (geddit?) for the inevitable climactic showdown. You have as many plot devices as you can think fruits...

Hell yeah, go for it! Anyone remember the Pac-Man cartoon? I seem to remember liking it...it was chiefly the reason I endured Roland Rat's substandard grasp of the Englishlanguage for an enitre Summer...well, Pac Man, George of the Jungle and Roger Ramjet anyways....

"I think the worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades..."

Okay. Grudgingly, I will concede your point that live action *might* be the wrong way to go with this. Imdb, in fact, now has this upcoming film listed as animation/adventure... I guess the buzz about it being live action was wrong... or the studio execs changed their minds.

Still, it's fun to contemplate a surreal, live action version of this concept. Eh? Eh? Zombiesolutions' pitch was actually rather brilliant... I'd love to see that movie, though I always saw the ghosts as being ex, dead Pac-Men, myself. Anyway, keep these comin'. I'm lovin' em. I'll be back in a bit, as soon as I have free time (yeah right) to post more pretentious musings on the subject...

Patrick Frater wrote:Masaya Nakamura, the arcade entertainment pioneer who pioneered smash hit video game “Pac-Man” has died, age 91. He founded the giant gaming company Namco and for 10 years Namco was also owner of the Nikkatsu film company.

Nakamura’s death was recorded as having taken place more than a week ago, on Jan. 22, 2017. But it was only announced, by Namco today on its Japanese-language website.

Having attended technical university in Yokohama, Nakamura reportedly founded Namco in 1955 as a company operating mechanical horses on the roof of a department store. After Namco was merged with another Japanese games firm Bandai to form Namco-Bandai (later Bandai Namco) in 2005, Nakamura retained an honorary position. He was also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, by the Japanese government for his services to industry.

Pac-Man, conceived to look like a pizza with a slice taken out of it, was invented by Toru Iwatani and went on sale as a coin-operated game in 1980. It expanded onto consoles before spawning massive merchandise sales, TV series, theme parks and a film.

Namco bought Nikkatsu in 1993. Japan’s oldest film studio was once famous for its pink-eiga, the free-ranging soft porn genre that gave many contemporary Japanese film makers their career start. Nakamura is credited as executive producer on several of its titles (“Warm Water Under a Red Bridge,” “A Stranger of Mine”.) Hewas also executive producer on Crystal Sky’s 2010 game adaptation “Tekken”.